Every team needs a player who tries to knit things together and keeps the football ticking over.

For the past couple of seasons Barry Ferguson was Blues director of traffic.

But now Blues have a different style and a different look. And Morgaro Gomis has fitted into the Chris Hughton framework as the deep-lying midfielder.

He’s not like Ferguson in style, he is more a fetcher and carrier, who scurries about doing the hard yards. Although, that said, he can clip an incisive pass and advance into threatening areas up the pitch, when the mood is right.

Gomis is more a Claude Makelele type – a suggestion which makes him laugh.

“No, I’m not! He’s a great player, I like him, but I’m not that good. I just try to get on the ball and make the team play and when we don’t have it, try to get it back as soon as possible, me and the other midielder.”

Signed on a Bosman from Dundee United in the summer, the French-born Senegal international has gone about his work efficiently and without fuss.

As have Blues as a team, very much under the radar so far, if not taken lightly and written off because of all the post-relegation trauma.

Five straight wins, and headline-making in Europe, suggests that they can no longer get by on the quiet.

“I think it has clicked,” said Gomis. “The manager said at the beginning of the season it would be hard because of the amount of new players who came in, and players leaving.

“He did target for us to gel as a team and I think you can see it now, we’ve won five games in a row and we’re doing well.

“Did I expect this to happen? Yes, I did, actually. It was difficult at first, because of those reasons. But we have good players and it was about coming together.”